The inspector general for Chicago Public Schools has recommended that district CEO Forrest Claypool be fired for his handling of an ethics investigation involving the district’s top attorney, according to sources, but Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Wednesday said he is sticking by his embattled schools chief.

Emanuel said in a statement that Claypool “made a mistake” but asked that there be no rush to judgment.

Advertisement

“These are serious allegations, and I know the board is reviewing them with the scrutiny they merit — but Forrest himself has already acknowledged the lapse in judgment, and apologized for it,” Emanuel said. “And I think we should all take a deep breath before making snap judgments about a man with a sterling reputation and a sterling record of public service.”

Inspector General Nicholas Schuler’s recommendation that a key Emanuel ally be removed follows a lengthy ethics investigation that spiraled into an open conflict between the district watchdog and Claypool’s office. Schuler’s report on his investigation was delivered to the school board on Tuesday, almost one year after the IG publicly accused the district of attempting to stall the probe.

The investigation concluded that Ronald Marmer, the district’s general counsel, violated CPS ethics codes by receiving annual severance payments for his past work at Jenner & Block while also supervising the prominent firm’s work on this year’s failed CPS effort to sue the state of Illinois over education funding.

Last month, in a letter to Schuler’s office, Claypool apologized for intervening to reword an invoice for an outside legal opinion the CEO requested to weigh Marmer’s compliance with district ethics policies. Claypool wrote that he initially told Schuler, during a formal interview, that he “did not recall” asking for such changes. Claypool’s letter then acknowledged Schuler had unspecified documents that contradicted the CEO’s initial claim.

The mayoral-appointed school board discussed Schuler’s report, which was not made public, in a closed executive session on Wednesday. Afterward, board President Frank Clark defended Claypool’s tenure.

“Forrest has done excellent work fighting for the equal funding of Chicago students, including filing an important civil rights lawsuit on their behalf,” Clark said. "We take seriously our responsibility to thoughtfully and thoroughly evaluate this report, and we will do so.”

Claypool holds a different standing with Emanuel from the mayor’s other top confidants and agency heads at City Hall. The two have been friends for 37 years, dating to when they met as young staffers on an unsuccessful 1980 congressional campaign. Emanuel was just 20 at the time, still an undergraduate at Sarah Lawrence College in New York. Claypool was in between his second and third years of law school.

Claypool has a long history of being called in to clean up troubled city agencies. He twice was chief of staff under former Mayor Richard M. Daley, and between those stints he served as the superintendent of the Chicago Park District, where he was lauded for cutting costs and streamlining bureaucracy.

After leaving the Daley administration, Claypool was elected a Cook County commissioner and later lost bids for County Board president and county assessor. Claypool was Emanuel’s first CTA president, then briefly served as the mayor’s chief of staff before being tapped to run CPS in July 2015 in the midst of a federal investigation that led to the indictment and conviction of former district CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett.

While Emanuel has long-standing ties to his schools chief, the ethics cloud surrounding Claypool —including his penchant for hiring old friends and accusations that he took steps to cover his tracks in doing so — runs counter to the mayor’s frequent refrain that end of clout at City Hall coincided with his arrival in the mayor’s office.

Marmer is one of several of Claypool's former colleagues and past political donors who have won district jobs and consulting contracts.

The attorney also has received annual payments of roughly $200,000 as severance for his past career as a Jenner & Block partner — according to the IG and economic disclosure forms — in addition to his CPS salary.

CPS ethics policies prohibit employees from having an "economic interest" in district contracts and also bars employees from managing contracts with entities in which they have an economic interest.

Employees are also barred from hiring vendors or entities with whom they have a “business relationship” — meaning they receive “compensation or payment” that entitles them to $2,500 or more in a calendar year.

Advertisement

CPS awarded Jenner & Block with a $250,000 contract last year to prepare for, and pursue, what was ultimately an aborted civil rights lawsuit meant to challenge Illinois’ education funding model.

Four in-house CPS attorneys concluded that Marmer violated the district’s ethics policy by supervising Jenner & Block’s work while he had an ongoing business relationship with the firm, Schuler said this summer in a preliminary internal report.

Claypool then tapped two additional lawyers — veteran district labor attorney James Franczek and a former CPS general counsel — for additional opinions. Those attorneys also agreed Marmer violated the ethics code. Claypool ultimately turned to a seventh attorney and political supporter, J. Timothy Eaton, who concluded Marmer’s conduct didn’t violate the ethics code, according to the preliminary report.

Claypool last month admitted he requested changes to an invoice Franczek submitted for his services, which included the terms “ethics” and “Marmer.”

During a boisterous school board meeting that included protests and heated testimony over proposed school closings and consolidations, Ken Bennett, a prominent civic figure who has served in Emanuel’s administration, urged board members to intensify their oversight over Claypool. Bennett’s remarks came as his son, hip-hop performer Chance the Rapper, continued a CPS-centered publicity and fundraising campaign at a South Shore school.

“Forrest Claypool is a brilliant man. But the Forrest Claypool that I see that’s running CPS right now, is not the Forrest Claypool that I’ve known over the years. And I’m deeply, deeply disturbed,” Bennett told board members.